Go Gyeong-myeong Stele

This stele commemorates the noble death of Go Gyeong-myeong; the site where it stands is also the place where he fell fighting valiantly against Japanese invaders. Go Gyeong-myeong (1533–1592) was a civil official of the mid-Joseon period. In 1592, the twenty-fifth year of King Seonjo, on hearing that the Japanese Invasions of Korea (Imjin War) had broken out, that Seoul had fallen, and that the king had fled to Uiju, he raised a righteous army of more than 6,000 men in his hometown of Jangheung and was acclaimed its commander. Learning that Japanese forces based around Hwanggan and Yeongdong had occupied Geumsan and planned to pass through Jeonju to strike the Honam region, he sent a letter to Jo Heon, commander of the Chungcheong righteous army, proposing that they cross the Hyeonggang River together and attack the Japanese at Geumsan. On reaching Jinsan they met Japanese troops advancing on Jeonju and fought them bravely; sensing their disadvantage, the enemy gradually withdrew back to Geumsan Fortress. On arriving at Geumsan, Go Gyeong-myeong joined forces with the army of the defence commander Gwak Yeong to attack the Japanese, but was surrounded by the enemy at Nunbeol and died in battle along with all his troops. Grieved by his death, King Seonjo had shrines built in his honour at Pyochungsa Temple in Gwangju and at Jungyongsa Temple in Geumsan, so that his loyalty would be commemorated. In 1656, the seventh year of King Hyojong, the magistrate of Geumsan County, Yeo Pil-gwan, composed the inscription, and a stele was erected on the hillside across from where Go Gyeong-myeong had fallen; it was destroyed in 1940 through the brutality of the Japanese police. The broken fragments were afterwards kept inside a tile-roofed stele pavilion, and in 1592 his descendants had Yeo Pil-gwan's inscription recarved and the stele restored; a stone stele pavilion was then built in 1962.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geumsan, Chungnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료